Hong Kong Tramways celebrated
its 110th anniversary yesterday and to mark the occasion the company
held an Open Day at its Whitty Street Depot. My thanks to Philip Chan
for providing the photographs, more of which can be found on Philip's
excellent Picasa Web Album.

Whilst first announced back in March,
it has only just been brought to my attention that this Northcord
Citybus Leyland Olympian has now been released, although the exact date
is not known (hkbus0003/CM095).
A new page has now been added and further photographs will be added
shortly. My thanks to David Rowe for the information and photographs.

27th July 2014

Photograph courtesy and
copyright of P&T/312 Model

These three resin
12-metre
Dennis Dragons are included in the P&T/312 Model website. Left
to
right are 3N23 (DA8776) on route 690 to Hong Sing Garden, 3N9 (DA6922)
on route 42A to Cheung Hang and 3N16 (DA8409) on route 3D to Tsz Wan
Shan (Central) . No release dates are yet known.

Captured earlier today
is this Alexander Dennis Enviro500NG for SMRT Buses, which has
yet
to receive its decals. On the subject of SMRT Buses, a new page has
just been added to the section of the site for the
first day
of service of these Enviro500s.

19th July 2014

News has been
rather sporadic this week, owing to other commitments, and I
hope to be 'back on track' shortly.

Firstly and most
importantly, it was
great to meet so many visitors to my site at the Routemaster 60 event
held last weekend. Some I had met previously and it was good to catch
up - others had travelled from Hong Kong and Japan and it was
good, at long last, to put faces to names. My thanks, as
always, to Sindy and Joe of Jotus.com for allowing me to
use their stall as a 'base'.

Above are just a few of
the specially commissioned items for the event, further details of
which can be found at the Jotus.com website.

A&K Model has
announced it will
release two new double-deck models in the autumn, a Daimler
'D'
type and a rebodied AEC Regent V. It is understood there will
be
two versions of each, the Daimler on routes 7B
& 9
whilst the AEC Regent will carry route numbers 1A & 6.
Further
details will be added when known.

SMRT Buses has just
received a new batch of Gemilang bodied MAN NL323Fs, and these
feature some minor differences such as a smaller (and higher
positioned) driver rear view mirror to reduce blind spots, and the rear
registration plate area is no longer recessed
into the engine cover. They are currently under inspection and
testing by SMRT & MAN/ST Kinetics. My thanks to Mark
Chua for providing this information along with the photographs.

18th July 2014

Following on
from the Routemaster 60
event held at Finsbury Park last weekend, Simon Ayres has produced an
excellent video of the event, which he has uploaded to YouTube - just
click on the image to view!

Citybus Enviro500NGs 8426
and 8427 were registered on 10th July and 8426 is seen here in service
on 12th July.

Photograph courtesy and
copyright of Teo Wei Shen

SMRT Buses commenced operation of their first double decks on Service
972 (Bukit Panjang - Bencoolen St) on Sunday (13 July 2014). Three
buses - SMB 3501L, SMB 3502J and SMB 3503G, all registered under the
Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP), were deployed to
operate on the service. Unfortunately, one of them (SMB 3502J) broke
down along Whitley Road while returning to Bukit Panjang in the
morning. Nevertheless, this is an achievement for SMRT Buses as this is
the first time in their 32 years of service that they are operating
double decks. Further details will be added to the section of the site as soon as time
allows.

15th July 2014

I
bet no-one can guess where I've been this weekend - hence the lack of
updates and responses to e-mails.

Set for release tomorrow
is this
Drumwell Kowloon Motor Bus Scania K310UD with Caetano bodywork
(DW10805).
It features ASU21 (PC6346) on route 6 to Star Ferry and is
limited to 1,200 pieces. A new pages and further photographs will be
added shortly.

Jotus.com will be
attending the Routemaster
60 event at Finsbury Park this weekend and I shall be there
in the background, so do please come along and say 'hello'.

Following
the posting yesterday of a KMB Scania N113, a batch which is soon to be
retired, news has today emerged that a model of AS8 is to be issued.
This will be limited to 1,400 pieces and comes with alternate
destination/route numbers. This information is incorrect - please
accept my apologies (8th July 2014)

"Commuters may look forward to more room on board Bus Service 972 when
the first 3 of 201 Double Deckers begin their maiden journey along this
route on 13 July 2014. The launch of SMRT’s Double Deckers will bring
greater comfort and help ease congestion, particularly during peak
hours, along Bukit Panjang Road, Penang Road, Orchard Road, Somerset
Road and Scotts Road.

On Sunday, 6 July 2014, a preview event was organized for Bukit Panjang
grassroots leaders to familiarise themselves with the Double Deckers in
the lead-up to the launch. The event was graced by Bukit Panjang
Adviser Dr. Teo Ho Pin who, along with about 80 grassroots members,
embarked on a Double Decker tour around the Bukit Panjang estate.
Besides giving a brief orientation of the Double Decker, which sports
wheelchair friendly features, safety mechanisms and greater capacity,
grassroots leaders also got an overview of the initiatives SMRT has
undertaken to enhance service standards.

In the next 3 months, more Double Deckers will be progressively
introduced to 9 other bus services, following a series of road tests,
tree pruning and personnel training. These are essential services
plying longer, heavily used routes, namely Bus Services 106, 188, 190,
850E, 951E, 960, 963, 966 and 969.

To enhance commuters' traveling experience, SMRT will continue to
monitor the road conditions causing congestion and traffic jams
closely, and where necessary, provide swift and dynamic reinforcement.
Mr. Benny Lim, SMRT Senior Vice President for Roads Business said, “The
Double Decker launch marks a significant milestone in our quest to
provide greater comfort to passengers who journey with us. This
involves changing the way which bus drivers and technicians are
trained, retrofitting existing bus depots, as well as observing new
safety standards. Our collective efforts have today borne good results,
and we are thrilled that we can finally put these Double Deckers on the
road.”

My thanks to Wei Shen and
and Wei Teck for providing the above information.

Photograph courtesy and
copyright of Phil Halewood

My
thanks to Phil
Halewood, who is currently enjoying a visit to Hong Kong, for
sending me a few photographs captured in the last few days. Cityflyer
8059 (top) was registered on 24th June, KMB 80th anniversary liveried
AVBWU200 is believed to be one of the last carrying to carry the
anniversary livery, whilst KMB Scania AS11 (bottom) is due
to be retired in August.

6th July 2014

Due
for release on Tuesday 8th July is this KMB Scania K310UD.
Other than having a quantity of 1,200, no other details are known.

4th July 2014

SBS Transit issued the following press
release yesterday:-

SBS Transit To Add 665 More Buses-Almost Entire
Fleet Will Be Wheelchair-Accessible By 2017By 2017, almost the
entire fleet of buses in SBS Transit will be wheelchair-accessible.

SBS
Transit has placed orders worth $311 million for 665 Euro V buses, all
of which come with wheelchair-friendly features. The newest addition
comprises 250 single deck Mercedes Citaro buses and 415 double deck
Volvo B9TL Wright buses. Of the new buses, 296 will be funded by the
Government under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP).Said
Mr Gan Juay Kiat, Chief Executive Officer of SBS Transit: "We have
committed around $1.3 billion to purchase more than 3,000 buses since
our fleet renewal programme began in 2006. By 2017, we would have
replaced almost the entire fleet, and expanded the fleet by more than
36%."Delivery of the latest
purchase is scheduled to begin in mid-2015. By 2017, when all the new
buses have been delivered, more than 90% of around 3,800 buses will be
Euro IV-compliant and above, and almost the entire fleet will be
wheelchair-accessible.Mr Chwee
Meng Chong, a wheelchair user who takes services 131 and 141 regularly
to go for medical checkups and to visit his friends, welcomes the news."With
the delivery of more wheelchair-friendly buses, more services will
become wheelchair-accessible. I look forward to taking these new
services to go to more places in Singapore," said the 85-year-old
retiree